Along with other Iron Range leaders, unions and northern Minnesota mining supporters, the news Thursday that the state Department of Natural Resources had issued the PolyMet Mining company a permit to mine outside the town of Babbitt, was a clear sign of future renewal.

To them, it means hundreds of jobs, new families and renewed economic vitality in a region that has suffered from a slow decline of employment in the iron mining industry. Babbitt’s population has shrunk over the years from 3,500 at its peak to 1,500 people today, as nearby iron ore mines have closed or downsized.